Dan Bongino Tells the F.B.I. He Is Not Partisan

Dan Bongino, the F.B.I.’s deputy director, who rose to popularity as a conservative podcaster bashing Democrats and praising President Trump, sought to reassure the bureau’s employees that he would not act as a “partisan political figure.”

Addressing the work force on Monday, Mr. Bongino said in an email that he would set “aside any personal politics” and rise above partisanship in stepping into the crucial job of overseeing 38,000 employees.

“That’s what I did as a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service, where I proudly protected both Democratic and Republican presidents,” he added. “And it’s what I did as an officer with the N.Y.P.D., where I served and protected all the people of New York City equally.”

The message was a striking admission for any F.B.I. official — let alone the No. 2 in the organization. It reflected existing skepticism among former and current agents about whether Mr. Bongino and Kash Patel, the director, will maintain the bureau’s fierce independence in the face of investigations that could anger the White House.

Mr. Patel, a former prosecutor for the Justice Department, was also a high-profile surrogate for the Trump campaign.

In years past, deputy directors have been veteran agents in the bureau, climbing the ranks until landing on the seventh floor of F.B.I. headquarters in Washington. That period gives agents a chance to learn how to make cases, run major operations and field offices and deal with national security crises. They also fight for agents who face resistance from prosecutors.

At a farewell address before he stepped down on Jan. 20 — rather than get fired — Mr. Patel’s predecessor, Christopher A. Wray, urged agents to conduct their investigations with impartiality.

“That means following the facts wherever they lead, no matter who likes it, or doesn’t,” he said. “Because there’s always someone who doesn’t like it.”

The past five deputies had an average of more than 20 years in the F.B.I. before they were tapped for a role that essentially means acting as the agency’s chief operating officer, overseeing complex counterintelligence and public corruption investigations.

The previous acting deputy director, Robert C. Kissane, joined the bureau in 2003, returned to New York after Mr. Bongino’s arrival, while the acting director, Brian Driscoll, took a new job running a critical component of the F.B.I. in Virginia. Both men are widely respected and withstood a turbulent transition.

The selection of Mr. Bongino, 50, signaled a major break from tradition at an institution where most agents his age would be retiring. Despite Mr. Bongino’s experience in law enforcement, little of that has concerned thwarting daunting national security threats, a major element of the bureau’s work, and much of it dates from more than a decade ago. As director, Mr. Wray spent much of his time addressing cyberthreats while also trying to ensure the F.B.I. had access to cutting-edge technology to deal with sophisticated adversaries like China.

Mr. Bongino acknowledged as much in his email. He said he was familiar with a lot of the F.B.I.’s terminology and priorities but that he had a lot to learn. “I’m still up against a steep learning curve,” he wrote.

Mr. Patel has made changes to the bureau that could ease the responsibilities of the deputy director. Previously, the role required directly overseeing dozens of senior officials running field offices around the country. Now only the three biggest field offices, in Washington, Los Angeles and New York, answer to Mr. Bongino. But even managing those offices will be an enormous test given the number of sensitive investigations they handle and the frictions they could generate.

Like many of Mr. Trump’s allies, Mr. Bongino has repeatedly ridiculed the F.B.I., calling it corrupt, denouncing its agents as thugs and floating conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as he gained traction as a right-wing pundit.

“I’ve been a public figure for more than a decade, and all the stuff I’ve said and written is out there for you to see and have an opinion about,” Mr. Bongino wrote.

Mr. Bongino has long made his name by assailing Democrats, which could provide fodder for defense lawyers willing to argue that the F.B.I. is politicized.

His past criticism has chipped away at the F.B.I.’s reputation, a fact that is not lost on agents now under his command.

To be sure, the F.B.I. has made plenty of mistakes over the years, but former agents say the organization is not biased and that its work force leans conservative. While Mr. Trump and his supporters have denounced investigations into him, the F.B.I. also has a long history of scrutinizing the Clintons. However, Republicans did not describe those inquiries as politicized or the weaponization of federal government.

Indeed, Mr. Bongino’s email on Monday represented an about-face since he became deputy director. In tough moments, he told employees, remember that “you work for the F.B.I. Those three letters mean something. It’s an incredible privilege to be here — take it from the new guy.”

Whether Mr. Bongino and Mr. Patel maintain the bureau’s long tradition of independence free from White House interference remains far from clear. But the email was clearly intended to assuage concerns and acknowledge his past.

Still, former and current agents have their doubts, pointing to senior members of Mr. Trump’s administration sharing defense secrets over Signal, an unsecured messaging app.

They say the disclosure of a pending attack on Houthi rebels should have prompted an investigation by the F.B.I., and could be a violation of the Espionage Act. That did not happen. Instead, Trump administration officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, claimed the information was not classified and played down the seriousness of the breach.

Ms. Bondi, for her part, pointed to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, which the F.B.I. investigated, upending the 2016 presidential election. (On his podcast, Mr. Bongino once denounced Mrs. Clinton as “a criminal” and “a genuinely evil, awful person. I worked with this woman. Ladies and gentleman, no one liked her.”)

Mr. Bongino and Mr. Patel have promised transparency, but neither have said why the F.B.I. did not investigate a case that was all but certain to have ensnared Mr. Trump’s top national security officials.

Lauren Anderson, who ran an espionage squad at the F.B.I., wrote on LinkedIn that the Signal texts were a “debacle” and described the lack of an investigation as “deeply troubling and yet another hit to the #RuleOfLaw in our nation.”

“It is imperative that all individuals, regardless of their position, affiliation, or political party, are held to the same standards of accountability and undergo the necessary investigations,” she added.